You never know what youre gonna get with me

Month: December 2016

New Year’s Resolution, long term habit, livelihood, etc. If fitness is in your 2017 plans, you might want to check out the predicted trends.

Using multiple sites, I cross checked and came up with the most common trends to see in 2017:

Wearable technology

Bodyweight training

HIIT

Educated and Experienced Fitness Professionals

Strength Training

Group Training

Exercise is Medicine

Yoga

Personal Training

Exercise and Caloric Restriction for Weight Loss

Recovery

The first 10 of these come straight from the American College of Sports Medicine, and were also found in all of my other sites, as everyone credits the ACSM for the “new trends” list each year. There were definitely more categories from multiple sites that could have been included, but that list would have been well, exhaustive.

I did, however, want to add #11- recovery, as I think this is a HUGE up and coming area to focus on- as it needs to be!

For a look at both the ACSM and ACE Fitness lists (ACE not included as it had many differing trends, but still credible) you can follow the links here:

Before you set your 2017 New Year’s Resolutions, take a step back and allow yourself to think about. Sure, almost everyone sets some sort of resolution at the beginning of the new year, but how many stick to them?

Don’t make a resolution that you can’t stick to. Don’t make it too far fetched or out of this world. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Whatever your resolution might be, fitness, weight loss, relationship management, being smart with your finances, trying better at this, doing less of that, take time to think about it and plan it out.

The reasons most people don’t stick to resolutions could be many- ‘falling off the bandwagon’, everyone seems to give up their resolutions within the first 3 months of the new year, or ‘not having enough support’, ‘setting a goal too big’, or ‘setting a goal too small it isn’t as rewarding to achieve’. But my ever favorite reason for not sticking to the resolutions is…. ‘I’ll try again next year’. NO what if there is NOT a next year?! Do this for you, do it now.

My suggestion? Take it one month at a time. Set an overall goal, but break it down into 12 segments, 12 months. As this is predominately a fitness blog, let’s take a fitness resolution for example:

First off all, let’s call these goals or dreams, ‘resolutions’ seems to have a weird vibe about it. As if everyone expects you to set one, but they also expect you to fail at them. Goals are awesome, dreams are awesome-er!

Say your goal is to exercise 5 days a week in 2017:

Take it one month at a time- pull out a calendar! Maybe in January your goal will be to try out different classes during that month to find your niche. You could sample many different classes and still find one to fit your schedule to make those 5 days a week work.

Using that calendar give yourself a sticker, a sharpie mark, or whatever you want to indicate the days you worked out. Hell, if you’re even following the top predicted trend of 2017 (blog about that to follow) and have invested in wearable technology- write your workout stats on each calendar day!

January could be your month to try fitness classes. February could be your month to bring a friend to class. March could be your month to try one day a week of working out on your own in the gym. April could be your month to try adding functional fitness in, rock climbing, gymnastics (hey it could happen), walking with friends- something that keeps you healthy that can also relate and help you realistically in your normal, everyday life. May could be your month for outdoor fitness. The ideas could go on and on.

Or if you find a class you like right in January just make it your goal to stick to it 5 days a week for your 2017 year!

Maybe fitness classes aren’t your thing, there’s always online programming, personal training, the buddy system, etc. The goal is to find something that will help keep you on track to your goal/dream!

Oh and another tip about goals. If you set a goal specific enough like working out 5 days a week, or even putting money into savings 4 times a month, going to church 4 times a month, etc. and you can’t make it work for those specific days every week of every month of the year, do not worry, do not give up! The beauty of goal setting is to learn to roll with the punches and to keep going when a lot of things are telling you not to.

So go set a goal, start thinking about it NOW, don’t let 2017 pass by, grab it by the horns and take action! And remember, your goals are for your life. Not everyone will understand or support them, ignore those people, they’re not your people anyway. Find your support system and run with them! You can do this, you will do this.

Plank step through- if your goal is to step the right foot through, your first action needs to be with your left foot. If you don’t bring the outside foot up and out, it does not leave a gap for your other leg to step through, and then the move will be awkward and incomplete

Panther crawl- is kind of hard to show in pictures, but basically you start in a plank position. You then move your right hand forward and your right leg as if you are crawling like an animal- as you move your knee needs to hover over the floor, don’t forget this!

Squat thrusters- starting in a plank position, you either step one or thrust both feet forward towards your hands and then look up as if you were at the bottom of a squat (because you are). Think of replacing your hands with your feet

1/2 turkish get up- make sure your right hand is in the air and your right knee is bent. The goal is to target that hand up towards the ceiling as you sit up. PLEASE use your outstretched left arm to help you get up- this is not cheating, it is doing it correctly!

Crab crunch- starting on all fours BUT facing the ceiling, you lift your right hand to left foot in a crunching motion and then switch

Flamingo- the best balance move of the day! balancing on one foot, bend over reaching towards your toes, and as you stand you bring your hands towards the ceiling and bring the leg that was balancing behind you (hovering) up with a bent knee

The goal is to challenge yourself, so we are thinking speed here, but more importantly we are thinking safety and good form!

Straight leg side sit up- feel free to use your outstretched arm (the one that is in contact with the ground) for assistance

Elbow plank walk- simply begin in an elbow plank, place right hand on the ground (picture C2), then place your left hand on the ground (picture C3), then return back to an elbow plank by placing your right elbow on the ground (picture C4)

Child’s pose push up- as you are pushing up from the bottom of the push up, you also aim to push backwards as if you were going to do a child’s pose. The catch your knees never touch the ground, so you hover the whole time and squeeze your abs!

Rolling side plank- simply go from straight arm plank, open to right side plank, back to middle plank, open to left side plank

Wacky jacks: look like a standing oblique crunch in fast time. You take your right knee up and out to the side at the same time you are bringing your right elbow down to meet the knee. You then hop and switch to the other side- it truly looks wacky

Wall sit with front jabs: hold a wall sit and pretend you are jabbing or hitting someone in front of you, do 100 of thouse

Plank shoulder taps- in a plank position, lift one hand at a time and tap the opposite shoulder- 25 each hand

Lunge pulse- hold yourself at the bottom of the lunge and pulse up and down 25 times each leg. These are the same concept at a squat pulse which has been done in previous days

Low push up hold to failure- hold the bottom of the push up and hold until you can’t anymore

Mountain climber get up: do about 2-4 total mountain climbers, then hop both feet in to your hands, and stand up

Birddogs- make sure you are using opposite hand and opposite leg. This is great for both balance and ALL over core, meaning abs and low back. Stretch your hand and foot as far in each direction as you can

Side plank leg lift is a hard move- to modify, just hold a side plank 🙂

X-crunch- lay on your back with hands and feet extended out so your body makes a big X. Then crunch up opposite hand to opposite foot

Butterfly crunch- simply lay flat on your back, then pull your legs in so they are in butterfly position (sometimes also called pretzel) but with the bottoms of your feet touching, then just crunch your shoulder blades off the ground

Rope climb- actually use your leg as if it were a rope. Climbing up it with your hands, touch your leg in 3 different spots (each one higher than the last) and then return to starting position to repeat

Today’s workout will show you how you can use some at home furniture pieces to add to your workout 🙂

Lower body HIIT

30 seconds work, 10 seconds rest

Sumo squat

Inchworm

Side step ups- right

Side step ups- left

Narrow to wide squat

Plank with leg lift

Box jumps or step ups

Seat squats

Lateral hops on one foot- right

Lateral hops on one foot- left

Alternating step back lunges

Split squat- right

Split squat- left

Pulse squat

Exercises:

A1&2: side step ups

B1,2&3: step ups

C1&2: seat squats

D1&2: split squat

P.S. sorry for the poor quality of these pictures, I worked with what I had 😉

Exercise tips:

For all lower body moves, make sure your knee stays behind your toes!

Seat squats- the goal is to lower yourself controlled, as soon as your butt touches the surface you explode up to standing by squeezing your glutes

Split squat- are a huge balance test! Beware 😉

Step ups are seen in B1,2,&3 but as noted in the workout, you can make these box jumps where you jump up onto the surface and jump or step down!

Pulse squat- when you hit the bottom of the squat, stay there, and pulse up and down for the whole 30 seconds. It feels like you are doing a squat hold, except your bottom is bouncing up and down slightly. Keep your pulses to 1-2 inches only!